Interdimensional Princess
by Flygonial
Summary: Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz get bored, and head off to swap service providers for Star's interdimensional mirror. Of course things don't quite go the way they planned. Originally posted on Fimfiction by the same name, the most updated and formatted version of the story will always be on there.
1. It's Gonna Get a Little Weird

The day hadn't been special _at all_ for Marco Diaz. He woke up, went to school, aced the quiz while Star Butterfly did _nothing_ but doodle over hers, and went home. If there was any concept of math in Mewni, then Star sure didn't catch any of it when she was kicked out and brought to Earth under the cover of a transfer student. Ludo's band of incompetent monsters hadn't even showed up to break the monotony by threatening to steal Star's wand. Now Marco had settled down for a good while in front of the TV with bowl of nachos and a litter of (non-lethal) laser shooting puppies rolling around on the ground in front of him. It didn't take long for one of them to find his left eye.

 _"Ow!"_ Marco shouted. "Star, can you get those puppies out of here. Right now? This is the _third time_ they've zapped me in the eye today."

"Sorry," Star answered from the second floor, "But I really can't do anything about it as long as they're awake."

Marco sighed, grabbed a nacho from the steadily diminishing supply in the half-full bowl, and returned to watching a show that he knew was mediocre but the best thing on air currently. Star may have created the puppies, but she had a long way to go before she could master the full potential of her wand. Anything that wasn't an offensive spell that came out of her wand almost always had unintended additions on them, from merely laser-shooting puppies to miniature stars that were supposed to provide sunshine but instead turned into rainclouds that constantly followed you around.

"Marco," Star walked down the stairs, "Have you seen my dimensional scissors? I _may_ or _may_ _not_ have left them _lying around_ downstairs..."

"I sat on them when I started watching TV. It wasn't funny."

 _"Sure it wasn't,"_ she said as she suppressed a giggle, "Can I have them?"

"Why not?" he passed her the scissors as she sat down on the other side of the sofa.

From what it appeared, the day was bound to stay the way it was, bland and uneventful. The same felt true for the next few minutes, until Star stood up and broke the silence.

"Hey, y'know, I haven't really swapped service providers for the mirror yet, and my mom is probably starting to freak out already since she can't call me. Wanna come find one?"

"Wait you haven't - _oh_ whatever, sure!"

He groaned slightly as he pushed his body off the couch, cracked his back, lifted the remote and turned the TV off.

 _"So,"_ Star said while pulling out a sheet of paper, "Which service provider looks good to you? The flying pony heads offer some pretty good service in Uni and they accept many different forms of payment. Mewni has service too but we definitely can't have it there since my mom would be able to trace it back to me and I'll be in St. Ol's before I can even blink."

She shuddered, the mere thought of St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses scared the living daylights out of any princess from a dimension in contact with Mewni.

"Star?" Marco waved in front of her face, "The quicker we get going the less time your mom gets to find out that she can't call you."

"Oh! Yep, let's go! I guess I'll just go for service from Uni," Star snapped out of her thoughts, pulled out her dimensional scissors, and snipped at the air. At first the portal was a mere spark of energy, but each snip enlarged the dimensional hole. Once she was satisfied she grabbed the ends of the rift and pulled it wide open. It expanded it to a door sized portal that buzzed with bright and swirling energy.

She stepped aside and held out her arm. Marco casually approached the portal and was about to step in but Star reached out farther and stopped him.

"Mess-up twins secret handshake?" she asked.

"I'm never hearing the end of that, am I?" Marco groaned and entered the portal, ignoring her. Star giggled and entered the portal after him, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

While she was growing used to the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom Castle, there were many times where Twilight still missed the Golden Oak Library.

This was one of them.

"What kind of place has nothing but crystal furniture anyways?" she asked herself as she settled down to read. Truth be told, the wooden furniture in the Golden Oak Library wasn't all that comfortable either. But wood warped, so it eventually was worn into more natural shapes from what it was cut into, still wasn't quite as brutally solid as crystal, nor did it feel icy cold and lifeless. Now she wished that she would remember to actually go out and buy more comfortable furniture, instead of getting lost in reading and only remembering it when she needed it next time. Of course she could have headed out right then but the book was just _so good_...

Suddenly, noise emerged from a room down the hall. At first, it wasn't a very descript sound, somewhat similar to the sound of a unicorn using magic, notably louder but not enough to draw alarm from Twilight. What did draw alarm were sounds that seemed similar to hoofsteps and voices. She looked up and around the room, seeing nothing. Clumsily, she pushed herself off the ground.

 _"Ugh, I think my left hind hoof has gone numb..."_ she thought, limping to the direction of the noise. As she came closer the voices became more audible.

"This sure doesn't look like Uni..." a feminine voice seemed to comment.

A more masculine voice followed it, "Really? Seems pretty close to what I envisioned."

 _"Who could they be?"_ Twilight thought, _"My first guess was thieves but they don't seem to be ones based on their words, nor would they probably be speaking at all if they were actually here to steal."_

She leaned up against the wall away from the hinges of the guestroom door, and pinned her ear to the wall. Beady sweat began to form around her head and neck, and she had to consciously stop her legs from shaking. Her breathing was quiet but appeared to be forced, and her eyes blinked irregularly.

 _"It's okay Twilight, you have nothing to be afraid of - except that you have no idea what's going on or what's on the other side. No, don't worry, you're the princess of friendship, took down Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changeling army, King Sombra, Tirek and more. Anything that's on the other side, you can deal with. Except you had your friends by your side then, and now you're alone. But still, y-"_

Her train of thought was interrupted by the soft creak of the door and the voices getting louder. It took her half a second to process the action and had to suppress a shout. Slowly, she peered over the edge of the door and saw what were obviously two sentient beings, but she couldn't really pin down on what they were, and the uncertainty frightened her. The conversation had long faded into the background as she attempted to think logically.

 _"They don't seem to match any species that I'm aware exists. They're bipedal but they don't even have a fraction of the muscle mass of a minotaur and I can't name any other bipedal species of the top of my head. Could they be... No, it's not possible. But then why do they seem to be right in front of me?"_

The closest thing she could attribute them to were humans. But humans were no more than obscure myths in Equestria, mythological creatures that burned down villages and ate foals in every story they were featured in. When they weren't destroying villages by brute force, they tended to deceive, earning the trust of the villagers before suddenly leaving in the night and leaving the village in a blaze of unstoppable conflagration.

She gasped, unable to keep it in. She hoped that it didn't attract their attention, and for the next second it seemed like her wish was granted.

 _"Wait_ a _second,"_ Star cut into Marco's speech, "Did you hear that?"

As they turned around, Twilight's legs felt like they'd turned into rubber. As far as she knew, they might as well as actually turned into rubber.

"Are pony heads supposed to look like that?" Marco asked.

Star on the other hand, didn't seem to hear,"Oh my gosh! It's a unicorn with wings! _So_ cute, but can I actually ride it?"

Twilight, who was too paralyzed with fear to move away was helpless to prevent Star from mounting on her. With her already questionable balance, Star's weight was like having an anvil dropped on her back, so her legs immediately gave way.

"Oh well," Star said as she stood up, "It's only about four feet tall, I guess it's not nearly strong as the unicorns on Mewni. Those things can bust through walls without breaking a sweat, if I say so _myself_."

"Um, Star," Marco said, "What the heck is going on?"

"I have no idea, how about we ask the nice little pony here?" Star suggested.

" _I'm_ not sure if it can talk."

"Well, you never know, and there's only one way to find out."

Twilight's perception of the world was an inconsistent mess. Her vision was incapable of focusing on anything, everything appeared as just a mess of color with no room to process detail, and her head slowly drifted around, feeling detached. Her hearing was still operational, but it couldn't seem to focus on specific sounds. She heard one of the humans - the one with blonde hair talking. Fortunately most of the background noise in Ponyville was mostly drowned out in the castle, so she was able to understand the words with some effort.

"Hey little pony, what is this place?"

Despite all the other questions that she knew she could have asked, she could only weakly say, "Please _don't eat me_."

 _"Oh,"_ Star dismissively waved her hand, "We're not going to eat you."

"Really?" Twilight's senses seemed to clear.

 _"Really,"_ Star held out her hand.

Twilight raised her hoof, but stopped halfway through. Something in her head reminded her, warned her of just this. Weren't humans were _so_ successful at destruction in myths since they were so sly and deceitful? Why should she trust her? As far as she knew, the second she took that... _appendage_ , she might as well as take a punch to the face and wake up being roasted over a fire in the Everfree Forest. She looked into Star's eyes, searching for any sign of deceit. There was none as far as she could tell. But did that really mean anything? She didn't know if reading human eyes worked differently, how good of a liar this girl in front of her was. Of course, myths were hardly reliable sources and they could really have come in peace, but was her life really worth risking as of now?

"Aw," Star said, "Don't be shy, strangers are just friends who haven't met!"

Twilight dropped her hoof, rose up herself, turned around and ran. After a few seconds, her wings spread and she jumped, taking to the air and soaring out the balcony, leaving both Star and Marco in the dust.

"Well, she _isn't_ very friendly is she?" Marco said, rolling his eyes.

Star's jaw hung slack, her eyes wide open, and her pupils shrunk to the size of cherry seeds. Eventually, she closed her eyes, and hung her head.

"Star?" Marco asked, "Are you alright?"

She turned her head to him and muttered, "W-what did _I_ do wrong?"


	2. Gonna Get a Little Wild

Fluttershy's cottage was usually had a fairly serene and relaxed atmosphere, with the quiet but constant noises of animals and occasionally Fluttershy humming. But now, the atmosphere was one of strained _anxiety_ , with only the quiet shuffling hooves of the Elements of Harmony and the dumber animals that didn't know when to _shut up_. Twilight's insistence on shutting the curtains didn't help either, which only left the room dimly lit by candles.

"Now Twilight, what's all this fuss about? You certainly seem uneasy," Rarity inquired.

"Sugarcube, when Twilight's acting like this, chances are that it's either important or she _needs_ mental help," Applejack stated.

Twilight had propped whatever writing utensils and paper she could find outside of her castle on a small table. She furiously wrote on the parchment paper, her eyes never leaving it - not even checking to see how worn the tip of the quill had gone or how her current candle had almost burned out. Finally, she seemed satisfied, allowed herself a quick smile, and turned around.

"Girls," Twilight said, "I have something very important to tell all of you, so listen closely, especially you, _Spike_."

Spike, who was happily napping, woke up, "W-wuh? Oh, _fine_."

"Now this noon, I was settling down with a book looking for a short read before lunch. Spike was out for groceries at the time so he also needs to be brought up to speed. Back to-"

"Will you _just_ get to the point?" Rainbow Dash blurted out, earning glares from Rarity and Applejack.

Twilight sighed, "So I heard this noise come out of a guestroom door, first door down the hall to the right of the balcony. At first it was difficult to locate and sounded like _magic_. But then I heard hoofsteps and voices coming from the same pla-"

"You haven't gotten to the point," Rainbow Dash interrupted, this time earning an additional glare from Twilight.

Twilight fought back the urge to respond and continued, "Now I don't remember much of what they said, and while they talked about flying pony heads and dimensions, I don't think that'll lead us anywhere. Shortly afterwards, they opened the door and I was in for a big surprise. I think they're humans."

 _"They're what?"_ everybody minus Fluttershy shouted.

"Humans?" Fluttershy said, "You mean those t-things that e-eat foals?"

Everyone except for Twilight gasped in shock.

"Yes, but now let me finish," Twilight said, "There was a male and a female, but the rest is mostly a blur. What I recall is one of them said something about riding me and sat on me. I asked them if they were going to eat me, and they told me they weren't, and the girl offered me her... I don't know exactly what it was, but it was attached to her arm. I don't know if they were lying or not, but I ran, so here we are now, in what I think is the one home among ours that they'll look last."

There was a moment of silence afterward, and Twilight took the time to observe her friends reactions. Most of their faces showed confusion, others worry, and some were harder to figure out.

"Twilight," Pinkie Pie said, "Do they really eat foals? They don't seem all that bad from what you said."

Twilight took a deep breath and said, "I don't want you all jumping to conclusions just yet. You also can't just tell this to anypony, because I don't want the entire town to be panicking either. I really don't know what to make of it. Humans were quite good at deception based on the stories, but I really don't know about how accurate our myths are. I don't want for any of you to be in danger or for any of you to falsely accuse them of evil intentions and attack them, you know who you are. I'm not sure about what to do yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something. For now, Spike, send the letter I've written on that table to Princess Celestia."

"Sure Twilight!" Spike replied, "But I still have a question. Do they e-eat baby dragons?"

"No Spike," Twilight said, "and thank you."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and settled down on Fluttershy's couch, alone with her thoughts. She knew by now that replaying the scene that occurred just an hour ago would do her little good, but one phrase that girl said stuck out to her. 'Strangers are just friends who haven't met' - and to her gut, it seemed honest enough. She could keep on insisting to herself that she made the right choice not making a potentially dangerous decision that she didn't know enough about, but it seemed like a genuine gesture of friendship. As the princess of friendship, the thought that she may have turned down the opportunity to make friends stung more than ever.

Pinkie Pie broke the silence, "Wait Twilight, if what you said is true, then wouldn't they probably be walking through Ponyville _right now_?"

Twilight snapped out of her thoughts, " _Mother of Celestia_ , you're right. Saddle up girls, we're moving out."

"Was I too invasive when I tried to ride her?" Star asked.

"Star," Marco said, "as far as I can see, you didn't really do anything wrong. I'm sure that she was probably just scared or something."

"But still," Star said dejectedly, "that doesn't make me feel any better about it."

"Look, Star," he said, "you're probably one of the coolest girls I know. You're objectively the most friendly person I've ever met. If she didn't take your hand, then there's probably another reason to it, okay?"

 _"You don't really know any other girls,"_ she thought, but instead she merely said, "Okay then."

"Good," he said. "Now I think we should head straight for Uni, giving your mom less time to find out about anything. You still have those scissors?"

"Yeah," she replied, "but we still have no idea how we got here. I _couldn't_ have misused the scissors - even you used them correctly even though you didn't know what Pixtopia was like!"

"Did I damage them when I sat on them?" Marco asked.

"B-but dimensional scissors are tougher than that, they must be!"

Star brought the scissors up and began to thoroughly inspect them. The blades were close to flawless, with nothing but the occasional dust mote covering it. The zig-zag formed by the two handles where they met clipped together perfectly. The gem where the two blades intersected seemed fine at a glance, but closer inspection revealed a crack.

"Marco," Star whispered. "You're not going to like this."

"Wait, what, did I _actually_ damage it?" he groaned.

"I'm not sure about that, but I think this little crack has something to do with where we are."

"Mother of God," he mumbled, "We're not going anywhere until we've taken care of that."

Noise filled every corner of the streets in Ponyville, the majority of which was the banter of the crowd which was mostly unimportant drivel. Despite Ponyville's relatively small size, its population density in some areas wasn't much lower than some of the largest Equestrian cities. The market was filled to the brim with ponies buying, haggling, and selling, and restaurants didn't any decline in customers as of yet. If anypony was home, then chances were they were either getting ready to go out or spent much of their time in a basement. _Despite_ all the activity, two humans with outfits of contrasting colors would have definitely stood out.

"Alright girls," Twilight said. "We've got to split up and find them before they cause too much panic. Look for a sea green dress and a red hoodie."

"Hey, Twilight, what will we do when we find them?" Pinkie Pie asked while donning her spy gear.

"Oh, about that," Twilight said. "I got Spike to head back to the chemistry lab in the castle to get some of these."

"Because humans don't eat baby dragons," Spike cut in.

Ignoring him, she promptly levitated six glass vials out of her saddlebags and passed them out. Each contained a seemingly stable red powder that gave off a dim glow, sealed by a cork.

"I made these a while ago as an experiment, now these are the leftovers from my tests. They're vials of enchanted red phosphorus - the spell is made for them to react violently upon contact with air and launch skyward since it's naturally more stable than that. You are _only_ to uncork them if you actually spot them. If you see any in the sky - and _trust me_ , you'll be able to recognize them, then get there as soon as possible and make sure they can't escape. After that we'll sort out what's happening. If we can't then just keep them there until Celestia comes. Only point them straight up, check for any pegasi, or obstructions such as architecture or parts of yourself. Also, don't eat them, just don't."

"Flutters and I will take the skies, right?" Rainbow Dash said, clutching Fluttershy uncomfortably close.

"W-why not?" Fluttershy managed to choke out.

Twilight spread her wings, and said, "I'll go with you as well. We can cover ground quicker. Applejack and Rarity, you two can go split up and search the two most crowded places in town, the market and around the town hall. Pinkie Pie, you be yourself - that's probably the only way you'll work something out. Spike, on my back. Now, let's go!"

 _"So,_ what's the plan?" Star asked.

Marco sighed. "We don't really know anything about what we can do, but you're not going to fix it with your magic now."

"Why not?" Star asked, raising her eyebrows.

"If I'm going to be honest with you Star," Marco began, "your magic is pretty unreliable."

 _"Oh,"_ she noted. "Well, I'm not really sure if I really want to leave this place yet anyways. All the ponies are _so cute_."

Ponyville's market was a bustling little section of the town, filled to the brim with the scent of produce and the sound of ponies haggling. The midday sun may have been steadily baking on the town but the low humidity and light breeze counteracted it perfectly.

"I guess there'll be plenty of ponies to ask questions there," Marco stated as they neared the place.

Passing through, they drew the stares of many and the remainder always gave them a second glance. Most ponies cleared out of their path in fear of the unknown, which resulted in some very uncomfortable situations, considering the already high density of the area. Some ponies that were buying immediately finished their purchase and attempted to leave the area.

"Hi!" Star called out to random ponies. Every time she said it, some cringed and lurked back a bit farther. On the contrary, a few ponies seemed to lean in a bit closer. Regardless, every one of them had one thing in common - confusion.

Marco scanned the area, observing the faces of the ponies, and saw that most likely none of them were willing to to talk. The two continued passing through the marketplace, spreading unease wherever they went.

As a regular seller of her produce, Applejack was rather familiar with the Ponyville market. Right away she could tell that the normal hustle and bustle of the area was much weaker than usual. Somewhere in the distance, ponies were awkwardly shuffling around, whispering to each other with their hooves over their mouths. Furthermore, several ponies were running from the general direction of the unease, which further aroused her suspicions.

 _"They have to be here,"_ Applejack thought, _"But I can't really see them yet."_

She trotted forward at a steady pace, maneuvering through the crowd and lightly pushing her way through it. Her eyes constantly flicked around, scanning the crowd of heads for anything unusual. Eventually, her eyes found a hint of blonde hair and a devil horns hair band. Could that be it? Not slowing down for anything, she made her way closer, seeing more and more of the scene unfolding. It was like the humans magnetically repulsed the crowd as they moved through. Finally, as she came nearby, she caught a good glimpse of her objective - a sea green dress and a red hoodie. The humans themselves looked like nothing she'd ever seen, but now wasn't the time for thinking about that.

She methodically reached into her left saddlebag, and produced her vial for signalling the others. She tore the cork free with her teeth and held the vial skyward. The enchanted red phosphorus _violently_ shook the vial and launched itself out, leaving behind a bright trail of red smoke as it soared up. Additionally, it let out a shrill, high pitched sound that turned many, many heads, of which included the Elements of Harmony. As it ascended higher and higher, it exploded without warning, the spell's enchantments making sure that the remaining dust did no more than vaporize. Twilight's chemistry had worked like a charm - the vial didn't explode in her hooves and that would have been visible from every corner of Ponyville.

Star and Marco picked up on the occurrence, both of them staring at the sky and wondering what it meant for them. Even in other dimensions, sentient beings usually didn't launch pyrotechnic devices into the sky during midday, and they sure didn't do it in the middle of an uneasy crowd. Everypony seemed to freeze to a halt, leaving an eerie silence.

"What was that?" Star asked. "It sure didn't look like a firework to me."

"I think the bigger question is _why_ it was launched," Marco stated.

First, the sound of wings flapping became more and more audible as two pegasi appeared over the two long sides of the market. The sun shone intimidatingly from behind the cyan colored one, obscuring her face, while the yellow one was facing the sunlight. After that, an orange pony wearing a cowboy hat pushed her way through the crowd, preventing them from escaping through the southern exit of the market. Furthermore, the lavender alicorn who Star and Marco saw before teleported to block the northern exit - with a baby dragon on her back. Shortly after, a white unicorn teleported next to her. Finally, a pink pony decked out with spy gear peered out of the nearest alleyway.

"Stay _right_ where you are! We will not hesitate to use violence!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

 _"Too much, Rainbow Dash,"_ Twilight thought and then said, "I'm not going to assume you're here for peace or for evil, but we have a few questions to ask."


	3. I Ain't From 'Round Here

Ludo's circular throne room was never lit by anything more than open fires, but it was more than sufficient illumination and only emphasized the atmosphere of the area. It was built primarily from worn stone bricks, plain and mostly functional in their use. Multiple pillars supported the walls as well as the open fires, built from nothing but skulls and bones. Banners lined the walls in between each pillar. Two sets of stair leaded up to the throne, separated by a small drainage door sealed with iron bars. Ludo's swivel chair itself had two massive horns jutting out of the back support, and two skulls at the end of the armrests. Ludo himself sat at the top of it, with several multi-colored cushions elevating him as if it made him look more intimidating rather than diminutive. Regardless of what kind of atmosphere the place was aiming for, it was trying too hard.

Right in front of the throne room, a nick of energy and a scissor blade materialized out of thin air. Shortly after, it expanded into a usable dimensional portal and Buff Frog stepped out of it. As Ludo's main spy, his arrival drew his master's attention - or at least got him to stop licking his ice cream.

"Master Ludo," Buff Frog began after he saluted, "Star Butterfly has left for another dimension and has yet to return."

Ludo laughed and then said, " _Excellent_. We will follow after her and get ahold of that wand, catching her where she least expects us."

"There's one problem," Buff Frog stated reluctantly, "I don't know where she went."

 _"What?!"_ Ludo shouted, "Incompetent fool! I suppose we'll just stand guard all around her house and ambush her when she returns - it's _brilliant_ , she won't be ready for it at all!" He dropped his entire scoop of ice cream in his beak and promptly choked.

 _"Yes she will,"_ was the thought that resonated through every one of Ludo's minions.

"What do we do now?" Star whispered.

"I guess we just answer their questions, we don't seem to have much else of a choice," Marco said.

"Why did you come to here in Ponyville?" Twilight asked.

Star bit the tip of her wand as she attempted to gather her thoughts to explain all she knew. After a few seconds, she seemed satisfied and smiled.

 _"Well,"_ she began, "I'm the princess of Mewni, Star Butterfly, and I came here from-"

"You're a _princess_?" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "Twilight over here is one too!"

"What kind of _princess_ dresses like _that_?" Rarity said in disgust not a moment after Pinkie, "That dress is so simple! That devil horn hair band and boots with a spike at the end are so _conflicting_ with the rest of her wardrobe!"

"Girls, _one_ at a time!" Twilight shouted, "Go on, hu - I mean, Star."

Star, satisfied, started speaking again, "Now, the boy next to me is named Marco Diaz, and we came here from Earth. In dimensions connected to Mewni we use interdimensional mirrors to communicate between dimensions, and they charge money for that service and the gems I deposited as payment have been used up. Now I wanted to go to Uni, the dimension of flying pony heads to get my mirror service changed over to there, but my dimensional scissors got damaged and now I'm here."

"I didn't understand a word of that," Applejack stated.

"Thank you," Twilight said, "Now, what exactly are dimensional scissors?"

"Well, I'm not too sure about how it works but I generally think of a location that I want to go to and then I use these to cut through mid-air to generate a portal that leads to the said place."

"That explains the sound similar to magic I heard earlier," Twilight noted, "Now I want you to tell me about this Mewni and this Earth place."

"Well, back in Mewni, people always called me reckless and irresponsible because I like fighting monsters! I liked to have fun, and kept it up until I got this sweet little wand for my fourteenth birthday," she said, gesturing to the wand in her right hand.

"She's _not really_ all that in control of it," Marco added.

"Are you sure that ruffian is really a princess?" Rarity whispered.

Nothing after Star finished talking reached Twilight. Her brain might as well as have imploded upon itself and promptly regenerated as she realized the implications of the girl's words. While her questions helped shed more light on the situation, she wasn't all that more comfortable with it - there were possibilities that she never considered. If what this 'Star Butterfly' girl said was true, then chances were there would be many, many complications involved in this situation. She said she came from another dimension using dimensional scissors, which implied that supposedly more interdimensional beings could possibly show up in Equestria at a moments notice - anywhere, anytime.

Additionally, she was a _princess_ , and the implications of not handling her with caution could be extreme. Firstly, it meant no dissections or keeping them around for research - period. Rainbow Dash's threat probably didn't help matters either. If she wasn't brought home in time or kept here, then surely other monarchs in Mewni would become worried and mount a search. If they treated her too roughly and then returned her, then things could go pear-shaped - fast. The worst case scenario from both of them was war, and dimensional scissors meant that nopony would be safe anywhere. That wasn't even considering that she implied that they could use _magic_ \- which humans never were able to do so in pony mythology.

"Twilight," Fluttershy whispered, "Are you alright?"

"W-Wuh?" Twilight said, snapping out of her thoughts, "Oh, I'm alright. But we _won't_ be if we don't handle this correctly."

"What do you mean, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight sighed for the umpteenth time, "Look, I'll explain later, because in the off chance that they're lying it'll show them how much there might be at stake and they can take advantage of it. But whatever you do, don't treat them too roughly both physically and verbally. Pass these instructions on to everypony else."

She stared off into space, alone with her thoughts once again. All she had to do was keep them in one spot until she could get Princess Celestia over on the scene. But still, she wondered how Celestia could get room to safely and maintain a safe distance. Perhaps she and her friends could do a little crowd control...

"Hey!" Marco shouted, "Lavender unicorn with wings, mind if I ask you any questions?"

Twilight gasped, once again shocked out of her thoughts.

"Oh," she said, "What's your name - Marco Deez?"

"Marco Diaz," he corrected with a hint of indignation, "what's your's?"

"Sorry," Twilight replied, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship."

"Cool," he replied, "now first things first, why did you run when we first met?"

"In our mythology, humans were always deceptive but barbaric monsters that raided villages and ate foals," Twilight replied a little reluctantly.

"I'll make sure to tell Star that later," Marco said, "now what are the names of all those other ponies?"

"Well," she said, biting her lip,"The white unicorn is Rarity, the orange earth pony is Applejack, the rainbow-maned pegasus is Rainbow Dash, the pink pony is Pinkie Pie, and the yellow pegasus is Fluttershy."

 _"All hippie names?"_ Marco thought, although he showed none of it and said, "How does society operate? Is there any method we can use to get home?"

 _"Well,"_ Twilight said, "it's kind of a mouthful."

"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted from her vantage point, "Celestia's arrived on the outskirts of Ponyville!"

"Sorry, I can't tell you now," Twilight told Marco as she took off to get a better view.

At first, Celestia was only recognizable in the distance by her distinctive flowing and sparkling mane and her notably adorned chariot. The Royal Guard pegasi pulling the cart might have as well as been invisible in the daylight if it hadn't been for their golden armor. As they came closer, it became more and more distinctive. Right then, Twilight realized that the chariot and the guards would never be able to land in such a tightly packed space, and the crowd was already packed enough. They would have to escort them out.

"Alright girls," Twilight said, "Celestia is never going to find space to land here. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, you watch them from behind. Applejack and Rarity, you clear a path through the crowd to the southern exit. Pinkie Pie, you follow right behind the two. I'll go direct Celestia where to land."

It was the dead of night in Echo Creek, and few were awake. The majority of the awake sentient beings were Ludo's army of minions surrounding the Diaz household. This naturally drew the attention of anybody who was still awake, although none of them really cared by now - monsters often surrounded that building now and then, and Star never even tried to hide her powers. They more or less completely surrounded the house, including the chimney.

"Have all the possible entrances been covered?" asked Spikeballs, one of Ludo's minions with spiked balls for his hands - hence his name.

"Yes, yes, of course," Ludo said dismissively.

"What about inside the house?"

"Bearicorn has that covered," Ludo replied.

"Then why is he out in the yard?" Spikeballs gestured to the mentioned monster.

"You _incompetent_ fool!"

"Alright, girls, just take a left turn, keep on going, and you'll make it to where I directed Princess Celestia to land!" Twilight ordered.

By then, the group had managed to escort Star and Marco out of the market, and Twilight had returned to help contribute to keeping the two surrounded. While it should have been a rather simple task, Twilight's thoughts made it torture. Every off move that the two humans made could have been ones to get themselves in a better position to escape. The mere possibility of having been fed a load of lies was unnerving enough - but that wasn't counting that the two probably wouldn't exactly enjoy their treatment which could become quite complicated indeed if they told the truth. If she didn't do anything really stupid then a rational leader wouldn't go so far as war, but Star could always lie.

Twilight mentally slapped herself. Those possibilities were too small, too irrational to be worrying about now. Besides, she seemed so genuine - could she really be lying? She had to have some modicum of trust with the unknown or she would never get any sleep at night.

She saw that Celestia had already exited her chariot a hundred or so meters away. If she had any of the same thoughts that she was having a hour before, then she wasn't showing it. She wasn't too sure about how well she'd take it if she discovered the status of Star, but she took comfort in knowing she'd probably work out something.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight said louder than she intended to, "There's a lot that I've heard after you got that letter."

"At ease, Twilight," she replied, "I'd be happy to hear it."

"It's a long story," Twilight sheepishly stated, "and I think it's better if the girl there tells it to you."

"Oh I hear them all the time," Celestia said with a patient smile.

Celestia listened to Star recall the chain of events that led to their current situation for the second time. Never did she seem impatient or alarmed, merely listening while still making the speaker feel like they mattered. After all, it had been a skill that had taken centuries to perfect for her, and it more or less always put itself to good use when listening to anyone rational.

"So you say it would be better if you got going right away?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah," Star said while playing with her wand, "my mom wouldn't really take kindly to us staying around and I _kind of_ shouldn't even be here."

"If so, then I'll provide you as much assistance as you'd like," she offered.

 _"What?!"_ Rainbow Dash shouted, "That's it?"

"I suppose we could devise a spell for it - preferably somewhere quieter," Twilight said.

The chemistry lab of the Friendship Kingdom Castle was everything the Golden Oak Library's could have been with the equipment properly in place. The most significant difference, and an important one, was that this new chemistry lab was far more blast-proof. The most flammable components of the lab wasn't the building, but the ponies.

"So we need a spell for making these dimensional scissors work again? Where is the point of damage?"

"Right there on the gem where the blades connect," Marco replied.

"Alright then," Twilight said in acknowledgement, "Girls! We're going to make a spell to repair these dimensional scissors. I'm not going to bore you all with the details but if I ask for any ingredients or equipment, then please fetch them for me. Spike, you can help me do the measurements, since if anything blows up in your face, all it's doing is disorienting you."

At first, the rest of the ponies were a bit confused by the vagueness of the instructions and the apparent lack of something to do. Gradually, as Twilight took more notes and jotted more ideas down on paper, she began to call out more instructions. It wasn't long before the lab was a flurry of activity, one that would leave an untrained observer completely confused. After a while, Celestia struck a conversation with Star.

"Star?" Celestia asked.

"Yes?" Star replied.

"Would you mind telling me a bit more about how it was like growing up?" Celestia inquired, "I'd be interested in knowing."

"Well, Princess Celestia-"

"Please, you can just call me Celestia."

 _"So,"_ she said while twirling her wand around, "Growing up in Mewni was quite nice, although I found my parents a bit controlling. For the first several years of my life, I wasn't allowed outside of the castle, although it was plenty of fun for me back then. The Royal Guard had been assigned to guard me, but they really could only babysit me by then. They showed me all kind of cool tricks, like how to snap necks, aim for pressure points, and some weapons training on flails, morningstars, and swords. I remember riding away on chariots that I shouldn't have touched, stealing treasure from monsters with Princess Pony Head, and more."

Celestia smiled and said, "That must have been a lot of fun. I remember playing numerous games with my sister Luna, ranging from hide-and-seek to making forts out of books and throwing them at each other while shouting threats."

 _"Now,"_ Star continued, "When I began to wander around outside, I began to find other ways to occupy myself. I would beat up monsters for fun, and other things like tame wild unicorns that wanted to impale me at first. I'm not sure if I completely tamed some of those unicorns though - they don't always head right where I want to and tend to cause lots of panic and property destruction."

"That takes me back," Celestia said, smile not wavering, "When me and Luna got bored of our games and our royal duties, we started wandering deeper into the Everfree Forest, looking for dangerous creatures to fight. I rarely have any time for those anymore, as I do have many responsibilities as the Princess Regent, but I tend to like having a bit of fun here and there."

"So Celestia," Star said shortly after she finished speaking, "what's it like to be suffocated by royal duties without an overbearing mother for your _entire_ life?"

"I've had thousands of years to get used to it," she replied a little sadly, "but I still manage to stay sane by having a bit of fun there and here. It also doesn't hurt that now my sister's around to bear the burden with me."

"Now? I thought your sister was always with-"

"The spell's ready!" Twilight announced.

Celestia turned to Star, "Now that's a long story. You can hear about it later if you can come back next time, but for now - I think it would be better if you didn't leave your mother worrying."

Everybody huddled around Twilight, forming a circle. She levitated the dimensional scissors as horizontally as she could, and held up a beaker filled with a blue, thick, sparkling liquid.

"Now," she said, "it wasn't all that difficult to create, and all the ingredients used were pretty stable. I just need to apply a little magical assistance to it and it should seal the crack."

Rather than taking the time to pour a tiny drop to seal the crack out of the beaker, she levitated a drop out of the beaker ran it along the length of the crack. The liquid gradually seeped into the length of the crack at a painstakingly slow speed. After half a minute, the crack was mostly filled by the liquid, still glittering in the brightly lit conditions of the lab. Over the course of the next minute, the crack solidified and left no trace of what had happened. She levitated the excess liquid off, and dropped it back into the container, which she promptly sealed with a cork and levitated it to a rack containing several other formulas.

"There, good as new!" Twilight said, levitating the scissors back to Star.

"Oh," Star said, "Thank you! I'll make sure to come back soon! So, Marco, should we stop by Earth or Uni first?"

"I don't know about you," he replied, "but I'm pretty dead beat tired and I guess going home for another night won't make your mom that much more anxious."

"Well," she responded, "she'll probably be asleep right now - Mewni and Echo Creek are only an hour or two off in time. So I suppose getting some rest wouldn't hurt."

With a few flicks of her fingers, she spun the scissors around, opened them, and started snipping. The portal opened like any other, slowly expanding with every snip. Finally, she pulled it open to it's full size. Looking back, she waved her hand and said, "Bye!"

"I'll throw a party for you when you return!" Pinkie Pie blurted out.

"I'll make you a more exquisite dress too!" Rarity offered.

"If you wanna race any time," Rainbow Dash said, "it's on me. I'll try not flying to make it more fair."

"You ever feel thirsty," Applejack said, "you can stop by Sweet Apple Acres for a nice cider or two."

"If you ever want to help me take care of the little critters," Fluttershy said, "You can stop by my cottage - if it's okay with you."

"I hope the best for our nation's relationship with Mewni," Twilight stated.

 _"She reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger,"_ Celestia thought as she teleported away, assuming her work to be finished.

Just as she was about to step in, Bearicorn appeared through the portal and tackled Star.


	4. I'm From Another Dimension

Any scream Star would have made was suppressed in Bearicorn's massive chest. Everybody instinctively dove out of the way, letting her hit the ground with the entire force of the monster's tackle. A second later, before either could get up, Marco kicked Bearicorn off Star's body and offered her his hand.

"You alright?" Marco asked.

"Yeah," Star replied, taking his hand and pulling herself back up.

"What in tarnation was that?" Applejack blurted out.

"Oh, just Ludo's army of monsters," she said like it was no big deal - which it more or less wasn't.

Just as the exchange was finished, two spiked balls attached to arms grabbed the sides of the portal, forcefully expanding it. Spikeballs stepped into the lab with a loud thud, and took another step to completely make his way through. He took a glance at the surroundings until he located Star. Despite his intimidating bulk and massive arms, his eyes seemed rather passive. Star met his gaze with an unrelenting glare, which didn't seem to affect him.

After an awkward second of silence, she raised her wand and fired, _"Narwhal Blast!"_

Out of her wand came a puff of energy followed by a group of three rapid flying miniature narwhals, which collided with Spikeballs, the first two bouncing off but the third one embedding its horn into his chest. Despite the diminutive size of the creatures, they hit with enough force to knock Spikeballs off balance. Star fired again and knocked him down. His body fell on a very unfortunate Three-eyed Potato Baby who happened to just cross the portal.

"A little help please?" Marco asked everypony.

Most of the ponies seemed reluctant or confused, staring around at each other before seeming to get a sense of direction. On the contrary, Rainbow Dash cheered and pumped her hooves.

Through the portal, a monster with light blue skin, deer shaped antlers, and a beard stepped out of the portal. He stared at his surroundings with a scowl that never seemed to fade, and as he took note of his surroundings it didn't seem to get any better. As he started stepping towards Star, Pinkie Pie appeared behind him and tapped his shoulder.

He turned around, throwing a punch as he did so - which happened to connect with Spikeballs as he tried to get up. As he realized what he had done, Star casted an offensive spell.

 _"Cupcake Blast!"_

Several cupcakes shot out of Star's wand in a rapid burst, connecting and splattering against Deer Beard's back as quickly as they had been summoned into existence. While it had enough force to make him recoil slightly, he still managed to maintain his balance. He turned back around, his scowl deeper than ever. He charged forward at Star, arms overstretched, fingers contorted. Star smiled, and opened her mouth to cast another spell.

A magenta flash of energy flashed forward to intercept him, hitting him squarely in the stomach - singing through his shirt like it didn't exist. The force of the blast killed most of the momentum he had gathered and left him to writhe on the ground with his fresh new third degree burn.

Twilight winked at Star, and received a smile in return.

"Alright," Marco said, "we just need to watch this portal, and pick them off one by one until they stop coming."

There had been a sudden flurry of activity when a dimensional portal had opened in the Diaz household's yard. Bearicorn happened to be heading into the house and instinctively moved towards it but thought better of it. After he turned around to inform Ludo, they had all lined up before it, and Bearicorn charged in. Spikeballs and Deer Beard followed, and after about two dozen seconds Spikeballs fell out of the portal head first.

"We're just getting picked off one by one," Spikeballs told Ludo, his body half through the portal.

"Then do something about it!" Ludo shouted back.

The monsters stared at the portal, wondering about what exactly they could do about it.

"We could wait for her to try to come through," Buff Frog suggested.

"No!" Ludo shot back, "I will have that wand now! I'll rule the universe, and I won't wait!"

A grey monster behind Ludo, Emmitt thoughtfully scratched his chin. After a few seconds, he approached the portal, gesturing for everybody to give him some room.

Before anybody could verbally acknowledge his statement, two large grey hands, grabbed the portal, and pulled it open even wider. The two hands grabbed the edge of the portal and propelled their body forward. There stood, Emmitt, a grey, cattle like demon with two bull horns and his face carried a stoic expression. Out of the two other sides, came Lobster Claws the giant lobster, Buff Frog, and Ludo.

"What are you doing?" Ludo shouted at his downed minions, "Get up! You're embarrassing yourselves!"

As they stood up, all three of the downed monsters growled, teeth bared. Marco's plan was useless, they would be able to come through the portal in larger numbers and now, the only thing they could do was stand and fight. However, neither seemed particularly daunting to Star or Marco, as the occurrence wasn't all that off from what they did on a regular basis.

"Get them!" Ludo ordered.

All six of them charged straight at Star and Marco as if the ponies might as well as not have existed. Although most of the ponies instinctively recoiled a little, Star and Marco stood their ground.

 _"Dagger Crystal Heart Attack!"_ she shouted when she decided they had gone close enough.

A pink, sparkling, expanding beam of energy flew out of her wand. Dozens of hearts with razor sharp tips and edges flew out in a constant, unrelenting stream. No monster bar Ludo was able to avoid getting hit. Although the attack significantly deterred them, it didn't quite put them out of the fight, as they were able to continue onwards after a few insults from Ludo.

Marco kicked Lobster Claws backwards as he took a swing, and Rainbow Dash tackled him, carrying both of them towards a table. The impact pushed the table over, the two of them spilling over the ground as a mess of colors, pincers, and shattered beakers. Star fired off another Narwhal Blast to stop Deer Beard in his tracks and knocked him down with a swing from her wand. Rainbow Dash - who was untouched by the destruction of her previous tackle - used his body as a landing pad as she flew back into the fray, and cracked her non-existent knuckles.

Eventually, the monsters had started to account the ponies as a credible threat, and stopped aiming for only Star. Twilight continued taking potshots, Rarity was able to create slightly less powerful blasts of magic to help suppress the monsters as well. Pinkie Pie distracted monsters by popping out of places that she physically shouldn't have been able to access in so little time. Applejack stood guard at the portal, giving monsters that poured out of it a nice, hard buck before they joined the center of the fight. Spike's dragon fire wasn't powerful enough to significantly injure but he was able to find some napalm among the shelves to block off areas.

The situation seemed to be under control, the monsters began to react less quickly to Ludo's insults as they were knocked down again and again, nobody seemed to be letting up to Ludo's army. His monsters appeared less intimidating and more frightening in their injuries, each with razor sharp hearts sticking out of them, second to third degree burns, bruises, and narwhals stuck to them.

Ludo groaned and shouted, "Ignore the ponies, just get me that wand!"

They made a beeline for Star, most of them getting knocked back down by spells or physical hits before they made it there. However, Emmitt had snuck behind Star, jumping over napalm and tables to get there. As she fired off another Narwhal Blast, he kicked her arm, knocking her down and sending her wand flying. It hit the ground, bounced, rolled, and slid right in front of Ludo.

 _"No!"_ Star shouted, arm overstretched.

 _"Yes!"_ Ludo exclaimed, his arm reaching for his ticket to ruling the universe.

As he swiped his talons at the it, a butter yellow hoof stomped down on the wand. Ludo grabbed the handle anyways, trying to pull it away, but it didn't budge. He looked up, dumbfounded, and found the most unnerving gaze he ever had the displeasure of meeting. Every muscle in his body began to feel numb, most of his muscles wouldn't budge - not even his eyes could look away. Everybody seemed to notice, although most of them were too shocked to do anything. None of that was relevant to Ludo - all he could concentrate on were those eyes.

"Fluttershy!" Star desperately called, "Please, kick me the wand!"

She did exactly as she was told, her gaze never wavering from Ludo as she did so. She grabbed the wand and breathed a massive sigh of relief.

"Twilight," Star said, "would your magic be able to generate a shield strong enough to survive a non-lethal nuclear blast?"

"Well," Twilight said, "I have no idea what that is, but I guess so since it's non-lethal."

"Get everybody behind one, no questions, you'll see," she ordered, with a hint of excited glee in the last two words.

As told, she teleported everybody - including Marco and Spike, into an unoccupied section of the room. With a flash of her horn, a bolt flew up, stopped, and generated a bubble shield. Ludo, no longer under the influence of 'The Stare', shook his head, and pointed at Star.

 _"Get her!"_

Every member of his army shook off the shock, and charged. She smiled sadistically, and raised her wand, energy already beginning to gather on it. Ludo's minions realized what was coming and hesitated - a few of them downright turning around and running.

 _"Turbo Nuclear Butterfly Blast!"_ she shouted with a smile.

As the energy consolidated into a white form resembling a butterfly, every monster in the room stopped and cringed, holding their arms in front of them in a useless attempt to weaken the impending blast. The energy reached a climax. Morphing into a ball, it imploded, and then exploded with an enormous bang.

While in an outdoors environment, the explosion would have created a far larger blast, the shockwave still was felt for miles around. The compression of the relatively blast-proof room only worsened the effect, containing the explosion. First, a beam of rainbow colored energy engulfed Star and shot up, deflecting off the floor and ceiling and into the unfortunate faces of Ludo's monsters. Then, the beam expanded and covered the entire room in the blink of an eye. As the dust cleared, it was apparent that none of the monsters were in any condition to continue fighting, the door was launched clear off its hinges, and butterflies were perched up on any object available. Tables had been toppled over, drawers spilled their contents on the ground, shattered beakers lined the ground, and the explosion had closed the portal.

Twilight deactivated the shield, her eyes still squinting from the blast, and said, "That shield took quite a bit of energy to maintain, and it'll take a while to clean up this mess."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Star said as she inspected her wand.

"I guess I still have more explaining to do to Princess Celestia," Twilight said, "Spike!"

Spike got up from his attempts to suppress the napalm by drowning it of oxygen with his own body and produced a sheet of parchment paper from a toppled drawer. Twilight and Spike then began the long tried and true process of her reading out exactly what she wanted on paper and Spike writing it down.

"Should we help you clean up?" Marco asked.

"Oh, that's on me, don't worry about it," Twilight said and thought, _"After all, you're the one who's with a princess of which's dimension we still need to learn a lot more about."_

"I suppose we'll leave now," Star blurted out, "I'll come back soon!"

"Bye!" everypony collectively shouted, waving them off.

Star grabbed her scissors by the blades, deftly threw them up, and caught them on the handles. With a single slash, she sliced open a reasonably large opening which expanded further with a little help from her arms. Together, Star and Marco both stepped into the portal, ready for some well-earned rest.


	5. Epilogue

"Thank you, your transaction has been registered and can be used as of now," the flying pony head at the booth stated.

Marco smiled and turned to Star, "Didn't mess-up this time."

"Oh," Star waved her hand dismissively, "you're just lucky they accept Equestrian bits."

 _"Or,"_ Marco rebutted, "I just made a connection between the two worlds, and figured."

"Should I swap back to getting mirror service from Pixtopia?" Star threatened with a grin.

"Please, no," Marco said, holding up his hands.

It seemed like things were back to normal - or as normal as they could get with the presence of Star. Mirror service could resume as usual, with a significant backlog of messages from Star's mother that she would never intentionally check. Ludo's monsters were driven back for the moment and Star didn't have any crazy ideas derived from her misinterpretation of situations. Of course, it would never last, but Marco decided that rushing its end would probably be a bad idea by now.

"So," Star said as she flicked her dimensional scissors open, "wanna go to Equestria now?"

"Surprise!" Pinkie Pie shouted, her hooves in the air, confetti flying up, and the lights turning on as if cued. All this was done while multiple balloons and streamers floated up behind her.

"Oh, what did I expect," Marco said, rolling his eyes.

Sugarcube Corner was nothing short of exactly the kind of stuff that kept ponies coming back to her parties. Balloons lined each corner and a banner with the words, "Welcome back to Equestria, Star!"

 _"A party,"_ Star gasped, _"for me?"_

"She _did_ mention it when we left," Marco pointed out.

"But still," Star replied, "it is a really nice party - it's got pretty much everything that I'd expect in one."

 _"Really?"_ Pinkie Pie asked excitedly, "That's great! I have a file on you, but these welcome parties are always uncertain - it's super duper I got everything right this time."

"You have a file on her?" Marco asked more out of shock than for confirmation.

"Yep," Pinkie nodded, "I've got a file on everypony in town. That includes you too!"

Marco's dumbfounded expression only warped further, but he chose to ignore it and move on. As the two made their way to the center of the party, most of the ponies there didn't look exactly the most amiable. Most of them were wary of them and awkwardly shuffled as the two approached, or stopped doing whatever they were doing. The opposite was true of a certain mint-colored unicorn.

"Are those two the humans?" a pony with a beige coat asked, "Should I do anything about it?"

"N-no, Swee- I mean Bon Bon," she replied, "I _think_ I'll just, talk to them, learn more about them, touch their hands, y'know?"

Lyra failed to calm down her hyperventilation, but continued to attempt to do so. She wiped off a few beads of sweat from her forehead and approached the two humans.

"It's okay, Lyra," she thought, "you only have about three-hundred and twenty-seven questions to ask them, right?"

Star took a glance at her, then again, and finally turned to face her. Marco picked up on it as well, turning to her and stopping in his tracks. She finally managed to calm her breathing from appearing psychotic to merely excited and trotted as normally as she could towards the two.

"So," Lyra awkwardly began, "I'm Lyra Heartstrings. I've always liked humans since I found out about th-"

"Obsessed," Bon Bon corrected.

"Yeah, yeah," Lyra said, wiping off a bead of sweat, "I have so many questions to ask you, do you have time now?"

"Kind of," Marco said, "but I would rather enjoy the party now, I should be able to answer some later."

"Well," Lyra continued, "I just want to ask, can I touch your hands?"

"Um," Star said, biting her lip, "sure?"

Lyra gently lifted her hand with her right hoof, and stared at it with eyes full of awe. She gently brushed her magical touch over it, as if it were a precious artifact rather than a body part that saw regular use for almost every practical purpose. She used magic to bend the fingers, the sudden loss of control making Star even less comfortable. Gently, she let go, and continued staring in awe at it for a few more seconds.

"Thank you," she muttered softly.

"You're..." Star replied, "welcome? Well, we can answer you questions later, bye!"

As the two started moving through the party again, Lyra continued staring at them. She suppressed the urge to teleport next to them and fire off several questions at once, and turned to Bon Bon.

"I don't really know what to feel," Lyra told her, "I have this feeling of euphoria and yet this feeling that maybe I was a bit _too_ intrusive, she didn't really seem all that... comfortable."

"Hey," Bon Bon replied, "she took it better than most ponies have taken your obsession with humans. I'm sure you'll get to know her well enough in no time."

"I hope so," Lyra replied.

"Ugh," Ludo said for the umpteenth time, "will I ever get that wand? Now she always seems to be going to other dimensions where we can't track her down, making even less openings for us to attack!"

"Patience, my friend," Toffee said, his hired evil efficiency expert.

"Oh well," Ludo muttered taking a sip of his west Mewnian swamp water, "at least we've been doing better ever since you've come around. That time where we tricked her into thinking Oskar or whatever that boy's name was asking her to meet him in a dark alleyway - oh it was genius!

 _"It was mostly an assessment of her gullibility,"_ Toffee thought, _"I won't make a real move until I know enough."_

Everything now was still fairly close to the usual, with Ludo generally being himself, and his monsters being incompetent. Any hint of how quickly Toffee intended for that to change was lost on Star and Marco. It was the most optimal situation that the enemies of Mewni had had in centuries, the wand bearer being inexperienced and mostly unguarded. Still, she was better at defending it than he had previously thought, and they couldn't just blinding rush in and steal it. Fortunately, he had a plan for just that.

"Impossible!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "There's no way you can pin the tail on the pony three times in a row without cheating!"

 _"You're one to talk,"_ Applejack thought.

 _"Or,"_ Marco said holding up his finger, "I may or may not have lined myself directly towards the pony, lined the tail exactly where I wanted it, and then went for it. Easy."

"Yeah right," she snickered, "So Pinkie, you have anymore punch?"

 _"Well,"_ Pinkie said while scratching her chin, "The only bottle I have left is _hard hard_ cider down in the basement."

Rainbow's jaw dropped slack, and then she narrowed her eyes, _"Gimme."_

"Please no, darling," Rarity said.

"You'll be hammered for the rest of today and half of tomorrow," Twilight stated.

"I'm going down there anyways!" she shouted as she bolted for the basement door.

 _"No you won't,"_ an ominously familiar voice said behind her.

Rainbow Dash turned around to meet Fluttershy's gaze, and immediately regretted it. She knew exactly what it meant, and she knew there was no fighting it, although she didn't have enough control over her bodily functions to even sigh.

"O-okay," she spat out between ragged breaths, "f-fine!"

Fluttershy's gaze turned back to normal and she smiled, "Good."

Rainbow Dash uneasily slid back to the game, glancing back at Fluttershy every few seconds. The rest of her friends had stopped eyeing her with dismay, and Marco was twiring the tail around his hand and stared at her as if offering a challenge. She was more or less in the clear, and had little more to worry about.

"Hey, Pinkie," Star blurted out, "I think I _could_ use my magic to make some more punch."

"Sure, go ahead!" she replied back, nodding with approval.

"Don't!" Marco shouted.

The latter's objection was lost on Star as she said, _"Delectable Sparkle Blood Punch!"_

The mostly empty bowl was promptly filled back up to the brim with punch, this time with the light glittering off of its surface. Rainbow Dash noticed and got closer, Marco did as well upon seeing no immediate flaws with the spell, and Rarity took a sip.

"Oh," she said, "it tastes simply divine, so many subtle flavors upon what punch usually tastes like. I would like to ask though, I can't pin down what the odor is and would like to ask you."

"Um," she said a bit reluctantly, "it smells like unicorn blood to me."

Rarity promptly spat out the next sip she took and blurted, _"What?!"_

"So," Pinkie Pie said, "Why exactly was there _'blood'_ in that spell?"

"I don't know," she replied, "it just came out that way!"

"Of course," Marco said, shaking his head.

"Oh well," Star said, "I guess we're going to have to go without anymore punch. _Sorry_."

"Oh it's okay," Pinkie replied, "we wouldn't have had anymore punch anyways. Now lets go have more fun together!"

"Strangers are just friends who haven't met, after all," Star claimed.

They returned to the game, Rainbow Dash going up next. She attempted to recreate Marco's method, lining the tail up to the precise height and location of the target, moved all the way back, and blindfolded herself. She bolted forward, hitting the board with a thump and knocking it over. As she took the blindfold off, she saw that the tail had missed the flank to the left by a few inches.

"What?!" Rainbow Dash said, "See, there's no way he can't be cheating."

"Or maybe I was more careful and didn't charge straight at the target," Marco rebutted.

"Twilight's next!" Pinkie Pie declared.

The argument was cut short as Twilight used magic to retreive the tail. She teleported over a meter stick, protractor, and began taking measurements. Upon finding the precise height of the optimal position for the tail, she lined the meter stick up with the protractor to a perfect ninety-degrees. After moving back with everything, she held the tail in the same position. First, however, she turned to Star and said:

"Now," Twilight asked Star, "why did I wake up last week with a sock in my mouth and a mustache on my face?"


End file.
